Alex S. Chamberlain Jr.

Alexander “Alex” Scott Chamberlain Jr died on Sunday, March 26, 2023, at Somerby Lake Nona outside of Orlando, FL. He was 94 years old and blessed with a long and fruitful life. Born on June 26, 1928, in Ashland, KY, to Alexander Scott Chamberlain and Dorothy “Dottie” Monroe Chamberlain, Alex spent much of his childhood in Bellefonte, KY, outside of Ashland, where his father was an executive with Ashland Oil. He attended boarding school at Woodbury Forest School in Virginia before briefly attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute. While on a break from his studies, he and a friend traveled to Cuba where they worked as ranch hands. After returning to the United States, he graduated in 1952 from the University of Kentucky with a degree in agriculture. During his university breaks, he worked on oil survey crews in Texas and Oklahoma, and he sailed as an able-bodied seaman on several oil tankers, visiting ports in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the Mediterranean and Red seas, and the Persian Gulf. These travels sparked his love of geography, which he pursued as a graduate student at Syracuse University, earning his Masters of Science in Geography in 1954. While at Syracuse, he met and married Carolyn Corwin, to whom he was married for 48 years, until her death in 2000. After graduating from Syracuse, Alex entered the U.S. Air Force, where he spent two years in base operations at McDill Airforce Base in Tampa, Florida. Upon his discharge, he began a career in land management, first of orange groves, then of Florida’s everglades with the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach, FL. Alex moved his family to Titusville, FL in 1964. For 57 years, Titusville was his primary residence, where he worked in public-sector land planning, set up a private land consulting business, and ultimately went into land development himself. Managing and conserving the waters and wild lands of Florida was passion a throughout his life. He was deeply involved in environmental issues in Titusville, and he was a founding member and long-serving chair of the Titusville Environmental Commission, where he proudly championed recycling, rainwater retention, and bike-trail initiatives. Motivated by the social turmoil of the 1960s and the oil crisis of the 1970s, Alex and Carol acquired farmland in Burkes Garden, VA, in 1975, where they and their children spent many summers. “The Farm” became his preferred second home and raising cattle became his second career, which he actively pursued until he was in his 90s. Alex is survived by six children: Cecily Kannapell (Henry), Alexander Scott Chamberlain III (Laura), Corwin Chamberlain (Anne), Jonathan Chamberlain (Cameo), Bruce Chamberlain (Julie), and Frank Chamberlain. In addition, he has 10 grandchildren (Julia, Kinsey, Claire, Ian, Sydney, Taylor, Andrew, Becca, Anna, and Jack), and one great grandchild (Harrison). He was immensely proud of his children, privileged to be the husband of Carol for so many years, and honored to have many friends in Florida and Virginia. He is also survived by his brother Frank Monroe Chamberlain, his sister Anne Chamberlain, and his later-life companion Lona Bell. Alex will be cremated and his ashes returned to the earth on “The Farm” in Burkes Garden. In lieu of flowers, those wishing to remember him may donate in his name to the Burkes Garden Volunteer Fire Department 6164 Burkes Garden Road, Tazewell, VA 24651.